Well, last night, as I lay shivering in bed with a tummy thing in our hotel room in Orchha, Rich said to me, well, would you rather be at work right now? YES! I said. What are you nuts, I could be in my cozy little cubicle, with a grande awake tea from Starbucks and a lemon scone. There would be a nice bathroom down the hall, clean drinking water, and my lovely co-workers to go out to lunch with. Heck, I'd even rather be in a staff meeting!
So, let me backtrack a bit and give you a run down of our time in India so far. We landed in Dehli, from Vienna (Vienna is lovely, one of the nicest cities we've been to.), and spent one night in Delhi. We wandered around with our backpacks until our train left the next day at 4 pm or so. The Delhi train station was quite a scene. We were on a night train, Sleeper AC 1st class, pretty nice. We went to Varanasi, on the Ganges river. It is a holy place where people go to pray and wash in the river - 60,000 people a day go down to the river. Bodies are burned at two different locations, or Ghats, on the river. Our hotel was on the river, accessible only through the alleyways. The day we arrived a movie was being filmed right outside our hotel, it was fascinating to watch, but it made it very difficult to get into the hotel.
The alleys are amazing. From about seven feet wide to less then four they are lined with small shops, housing, silk factories, anything you can think of. Although the alleys are too narrow for bike rickshaws, scooters and motorbikes do use them, as do the cows and the goats. It is quite amazing to turn the corner and see the entire alley taken up by a large cow, laying sideways in the alley. We learned that when you get lost in the alleys, which you will, it is impossible not to, listen to the locals. They will point you in the correct direction. Or ask a little boy to guide you to your destination and give him 10 Rs. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.
From Varanasi we went to Orchha, on the Cockroach non-express night train. It was a night to forget, but we probably won't. We passed the time playing increasingly silly versions of Gin Rummy and killing cockroaches. I told Rich later that I would have gladly traded a kidney to be off that train about 8 hours before we were. Maybe even half of a liver. Orchha is amazing. They are in the process of restoring many of the temple and palaces here along the river, and the town is small and friendly, without much of the touting and begging we found in Varanasi.
But still, but still. What is it that makes me feel unsettled? Is it the poverty? Or that fact that since arriving in India we haven't had enough exercise? We'd been walking about 5 to 10 miles per day, but where we've been here in India that is just not possible. Is it the water bottles? Although we bought MicroPur, the silver ionized water purification tablets that allegedly don't taste at all, we haven't used them yet. We've probably gone through more plastic bottles of water in one week in India then the two of did in SF over five years. We both hate the waste and pollution factor of bottled water so at home we use the same bottles over and over, re-fillng them with pure sweet Hetch Hetchy water. OK, maybe the fresh pomegranate juice at the little restaurant in Orchha was not a good idea and that is why I'm now taking loperamide and an antibiotic for my tummy.
Well, cutting to the chase, we are considering a shorter stay in India then we had planned. Rich is looking into getting us to Thailand a week early or so. So, enjoy your coffee and tea and nice drinking water on demand. We'll keep you posted. Everyone in the travel forums says to give India a few weeks, you settle into it. Maybe we will. I'll keep you posted.
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